Bell and Howell Spins Off BCC Software as Independent Company, Completes Recapitalization Retiring its Outstanding Third Party Debt

Bell and Howell, LLC has spun off BCC Software (BCC), a former business unit, as an independent, stand-alone company owned by Bell and Howell’s current shareholders. Versa Capital Management, LLC (Versa) now holds separate controlling majority interests in both Bell and Howell and BCC.

Christopher G. Lien, President of BCC, will continue to lead the company. Lien has spent more than 22 years in the data and mailing industries and has received national recognition for his contributions, most recently in his industry election as Industry Chair of the Postmaster General’s Mailers Technical Advisory Committee, a 49-year-old organization with more than 150 members of the mailing industry.

BCC will continue to be based in Rochester, N.Y., and will retain its full contingent of engineers and customer service professionals. In connection with the transaction, BCC secured a new revolving credit and term loan facility provided by Monroe Capital to support its planned growth. To help support that growth, the company recently hired additional customer support representatives, and plans call for further adding employees in marketing and software development.

Ramesh Ratan, CEO of Bell and Howell, noted that the company would assist BCC over the next several months as it solidifies its infrastructure. “We’re excited about Bell and Howell’s opportunity set, and the team and I remain committed to realizing them through the continued execution of our own growth strategy,” he said. “This transaction has retired 100 percent of Bell and Howell’s outstanding debt under its secured credit facility with PNC Business Credit and Crystal Financial, further advancing our progress. At the same time, BCC Software as an independent business will benefit from the focus, oversight and capitalization that come with being a free-standing business. This transition stands to make the two independent businesses stronger while BCC remains an important strategic partner with Bell and Howell as we work closely to create new services and solutions for our customers.”

“This is an exceptional time in BCC’s development,” Lien reinforced. “As we continue to focus our support and services for our existing customers, we envision new products and services for current and new customers and expansion into new markets. These solutions include international address cleansing, household data append options, list rental services, Datavolve certification on Linux, and full-service Intelligent Mail barcode support. We look forward to working with the team at Versa and to continuing our partnership with Bell and Howell.”

BCC has proven itself the leader in postal software solutions and data marketing services. The company’s latest offering, Go Data Solutions, is unique in providing a 100-percent cloud-based solution for small and mid-sized businesses that delivers on-demand access to a broad set of data services and a variety of ways to utilize that data in multichannel marketing. Astute direct marketers leveraging the full complement of BCC Software’s solutions can strategically track a highly targeted marketing piece through delivery via the USPS using Track N Trace services and can message directly to the recipient through complementary messaging channels to increase awareness and build excitement. An online demonstration of these cloud-based solutions can be seen at www.godatasolution.com.

“Go Data solutions is one of a kind – a state-of-the-art, 100-percent Web-based tool for data quality, list enhancement and list rental,” Lien emphasized. “If I’m in charge of marketing or a small business owner, I don’t want to wait to go through another department or a multitude of data providers to obtain a targeted list of prospective customers. I want to be able to access the information immediately from one source and utilize it just as quickly. With my credit card, I can rent targeted lists online and utilize the data within minutes. These kinds of rapid-fire solutions offer our clients a competitive edge in the marketplace. And we’re the one-stop shop everyone has been seeking and now can access.”